romney. they are difficult and remote, but now we will find out whether or not can turn potential into reality. neil: if things go just as expected, it would be keeping the barack obama was on track to getting at least the 270 needed. 290 by my count. as the state's rollout as expected. iowa and nevada, we too close to call. for all of iowa's six electoral votes, they campaign my crazy nonstate. lou: this is a tough battle. it is always nice for these challengers against the incumbents.

a tough uphill work in the best of times. they are running against very clever political operation in the obama campaign. neil: utah such a mormon stronghold. the romney has very strong ties in that state. his family has strong ties. no surprise that utah kids that way. orrin hatch was one who did resist a tea tea party insurgent. this would be his seventh term. lou: such a remarkably able u.s. senator. neil: he moved a lot of positions, he moved gingerly to the right, he cornered his tea party opponent and the winner of the republican primary.

that is a seat that stays in republican hands. it could mean that republicans and in worse shape than what we think. lou: given what we have seen, i am not surprised -- in missouri and indiana, this is a campaign organization. let's be straight forward. the strategy was sometimes incomprehensible. it amounted to less than the two plan to take over the senate. this is before things went from bad to worse the. neil: yes, picturing leadership changes here. lou: you absolutely could. there would be those in the

senate, in particular, those who would demand changes. the language has become a little tired. the strategy has become a little less provocative and deep than it should be. i'm not talking about the presidency. i'm talking about terms of being competitive in the united states. neil: lou dobbs, thank you so much. we have jeff and columbus, ohio. how does it look? >> yes, i can hear you. we does have some fresh numbers in ohio. i tell you, it's not looking good for governor romney. fifty to 47% right now. we have more than 3 million votes cast in over half way there. here is what i don't like about the future for governor romney.

ottawa county, which has picked the presidential winner every year since 1948 has come down with 100% of precincts reporting 51 to warty seven for barack obama. i see the senator here, we know senator dewine, he is not the attorney general. it's not looking good for mitt romney at the moment. >> we knew that the early votes that would come in would be the absentee ballot. that is about 77,000 behind. it is a distinct possibility that we may not get a result tonight or tomorrow morning. we may be in these provisional ballots. >> we will be camping out for how long? >> the least lebanese.

>> former senator, mike dewine. neil: the winner had to win by 300,000 votes or more to avoid any of this. anyone less, whether barack obama or mitt romney -- then, you know, we will see. they have these provisional ballots. >> is going to come down to the key swing states. it's too close to call. it could be a long night or maybe several long rides. neil: if you have a case where ohio goes to barack obama -- the

congressman taking up the governorship in indiana -- that would alter the map there. i am curious as to what the mitt romney folks do now. if ohio goes, then look? >> i think without ohio, it's hard to come up with 270 votes. once wisconsin and the longshot in pennsylvania didn't come through. ohio is really essential to getting to 70. that is why it is critical that the close race goes rightly. neil: let's say the president manages to eke out a victory tonight. what you think it will be like tomorrow? >> you know, i would be terribly disappointed in that couple little things cost meant wrongly the election. the editorial that he wrote about the automobile bankruptcy,

where he said that government should guarantee loans barack obama save the auto industry and the romney wanted to throw down the drain -- that cost him states like ohio and michigan could be tragic. neil: the headline that doomed him. not the editorial. you are very right to point that out. foster friess, originally with rick santorum. graciously shoved him aside when it looks like this. foster friess, what you make of the knights of our? >> it is like when my four kids arrived. excited about the new challenges, but concerned that something could go wrong during the delivery. i have kind of miss the vote here. i thought it would be a large win for governor romney.

now he says -- i mean, i couldn't believe that that couldn't ripple through the fox business community and really heard the large percentage of the black votes that president obama gets. neil: when you make of the market -- i don't know if it is in response to the future is better timely right now, getting all the cast gains in the market

back -- can be connected to? would you glean the markets as disappointing with an obama win tonight we met how would you describe that? >> in my investment career, actual people never to invest in the stock market. to invest in individual companies. the market is such an emotional thing. right now, we have time to market where it is not determined by which stocks are good and bad and they differentiate. it is just news coming out of europe that causes stocks go up depending on the news and what happens in the financial crisis. in terms of the questions concerning the election, i don't think people are going to be very excited about four more years of the huge spending and keep in mind that in 2014, these obamacare things again. the owner of red lobster and olive garden, they will shift their full-time employees to 30 hours a week. what does that mean all those

people? a lot of bad things will kick into obamacare that i don't think people fully realized be one all right, foster friess, thank you so much, sir. >> thank you, neil. always good to be with you. neil: as he was speaking, another disappointment for republicans. it is a self wound. todd akin goes down to defeat in the a race that was really his to lose. that was before the commons on rape and abortion. clair mccaskill who is considered dead meat goes on. lou: he was one of those known

people. these were mortal wounds. there had to be greater to liberation and choices. the mistake the republicans made -- they made early on. they are making some really terrible mistakes. neil: two years ago, they were just running away with it and it looked like they were setting the stage, you know? lou: as i said, the tea party has been strangled out of existence.

they became the astroturf that nancy pelosi accused it of being. [talking over each other] who. lou: dick armey in the freedom works, they decided they were going to make it their platform for a specific set of purposes and clients. it hurts. they didn't have the strength of leadership. that time is 2010. they failed to follow up on it. they failed to be, in my judgment, the least faithful to the values they espouse so successfully in 2010. you see so much in retrospect. but the fact that romney was unable to articulate clearly and

to anticipate clearly with the abominate initiatives would be. that is the problem. the president depended on his tail. neil: made about the truth? lou: make it about a bigger idea instead of a smaller. take a lie and show that the other guys -- neil: poll, i don't know how far you're going to go with that. when we come back, the options of running few and far between. he will be missed, but he has a tough test ahead of them.

at if the popular vote is running almost 50/50. again, the polls are almost exact on us. the popular vote is virtually even. the electoral vote is virtually even. but this could turn into the president's night a must unless mitt romney starts doing something big and soon in minutes. more after this.

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neil: wanting to update you on the state of maine. the northern part of the state -- michael barone will be joining me from the second congressional district of that state. romney was leaving and perhaps revotes will go to obama and that would represent the other electoral votes. rock obama wins all order of the electoral votes in that state. the other state that allows

splitting of electoral votes is not necessarily -- not that mitt romney would win all five of them -- but there you go. before we go to michael brown, going to florida with melissa francis. melissa: good evening, neil. we are at the processing center. those are absentee ballots that they are taking out right now. and you can see them running through the machines over there. trying to get a count as we near the end in hillsborough county. right now we had only one precinct left that hasn't reported and been counted. 346 precincts in of 347. barack obama is in the lead, 52% to 42%. 42,000 votes in this area and we are just waiting for the last precinct to come in.

hillsboro is one of those counties that it is a swing county in a swing state. they say that it has accurately predicted who is going to be president back to president reagan except for one election. it is definitely one to watch. we are almost at the finish line here. neil: thank you very much. in florida, that is what is going on. michael brown, what do you think? to i think it is a tough path for mitt romney to find 270 electoral votes. i think the league will be sustained in north carolina, but he is behind the popular vote as it's coming in florida. i think there's some possibility of him leaving there.

they have to be carrying these three states. in addition come they have to carry colorado and the six electoral votes of iowa and nevada. the casino workers union out of nevada has quite a record of reelecting him popular harry reid to the senate.

in the last days of law, they caught up. but i think that is also the possibility of mitt romney. neil: to look for that is an area that the president has one. does that make ohio out of reach?

[talking over each other] >> mitt romney's hopes are that his party's losses over the years i'm a demographically and hamilton can be made up by the other county fair. that is possibly within reach. it might be a stretch for mitt romney. neil: you are scary smart. he realized that? scary smart. >> is trying to keep up with everything. neil: can i ask you this -- if it is close to ohio, if you are a lawyer, where it could delay results in ohio.

[talking over each other] neil: going into whether the ballots were filled out correctly or not, they were forced to change the pattern? >> they were forced to change law and not. neil: how many of those? how many are we talking about? >> provisional. neil: provisional in general? >> we had someone saying it that there could be 300,000. attorney general mike dewine -- neil: that could close the gap right there.

we will see. neil: what you think of the senate race? >> what may very well happen is that they could be dissatisfied with the public officials to give the president an overwhelmingly positive approval rating. congress is doing a terrible job and it may turn out that they reelected a democratic president and reluctant senate is controlled by the democrats.

republicans can change their minds and our circumstances. they may think it's up to him to change his mind. spelunking the market reaction to this. the futures market -- we are back down to about a hundred or so on the day. that is not exclusively part of what is going on with this campaign. certainly disappointment among some investors who might have been banking on a romney win. >> i think it is way too early to call. i think around midnight, we will

possibly find out. by the way, i was a ron paul backer. he wasn't running. i think the important part of this is no matter who wins or who doesn't win, will we be able to have things going forward what we have had in the last four years. hopefully we, the people, we don't like things are getting worse and we have to change. neil: but let's say that barack obama wins. we have the same makeup as we have before.

>> i wasn't upset when people show disrespect, but they were pitting one group against the other. all americans want to be successful. people in america say it is the american dream. when i see people trying to divide the two, it is just not the right thing. hopefully, if obama does win, he is smart enough to say, enough of this. we are going to change something in america and needs to be changed for all people. there is no more giddy even or getting revenge. you have to make a change. if obama wins, and they are not going to change -- if republicans win and they wait for the democrats to change, they're not going to change -- we have a very messed up america. what we need here is some unity. no matter who wins, we need some unity. we will not know until later tonight.

we will see this later on tonight. someone has to change for we the people and not just for what they support to get elected. neil: thank you very much. taking a look at the electoral vote. they are both tied right now. california -- he is going to win. it will put barack obama over. he is going to pick up a couple of those other states as well. new york has already gotten in new jersey and i want to stress here that they are not officially written off yet. those are the states that barack obama almost by definition wins. therein lies the argument for mitt romney to counter that with an unnecessary win in florida and he has to pick up virginia. you know, you lose ohio and with

the rest of the states that are not called for. you have to win them all. therein lies the difficult math. not impossible, but difficult. the republicans are not closing the deal on the senate. we are going to peter barnes. we could be looking at a mirror image of what we have seen already. the repeat image of the last four years. democratic president, democratic senate red republican house. if anyone expect them all to play together, may i introduce my 10-year-old boy and 9-year-old boy. i will leave it at that.

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♪ neil: all right. this is from the headquarters in boston, massachusetts. they're worried, but they're not giving up hope. obviously it's still a close race. listed look at the cave -- electoral tally as a stance. right now it is even. but the reason why we say it is primitive, it's even. the next round of those states at 11:00 p.m. are california, hawaii, idaho, oregon, and washington. those are all states that the president is expected to win. that would be about 70 -- actually 82 electoral votes that he could pick up in the 11:00 p.m. hour or shortly thereafter.

so now your up to about 245. i have not even counted ohio where he is leading, not prohibitively, but leading command that would bring you to 263, within seven of winning the 270 you need. and then you understand that if your mitt romney you have to when virtually every single other state. that's what we mean by prohibitive math. looking at that same math. what do you think? >> i think it looks bleak for the republicans. i am not happy about it, but i am praying. i have all my fingers and toes crossed. i'm worried about what happens if we lose. neil: the futures are down. i don't want to tightest directly to what's going on in this election tonight, but what do you think happens to the markets? if we have just another four years like the last four or at least like we have been used to.

>> well, we raced toward national default, toward national bankruptcy, unilateral disarmament, excess regulation of business. the idea of having a secretary of business is so comical. it's such a perfect idealization of the fact that mr. obama knows nothing about business. business, they want the government to get the heck out of their way so they can get as out of this recession. i'm not happy about it. i'm happy about it. neil: you know, you talk about the cabinet position the president wanted, a secretary of business, secretary of commerce, treasury secretary, economic advisers. >> the idea of putting a government person in charge of business to help business, it's just so comically stupid. i don't know whether to tear my hair out our laugh. neil: iphone i'll work to go to the president, a lot of people

are going to go back and forth that day as -- as they have looking at the wisconsin and michigan results. all going to the president. that of a bailout. romney's objection to it cost him dearly. do you believe that? >> that cost him dearly. a very bad mistake. it caused him to went out in the third debate when he was given the easiest pitch in the world to knock at of the park about the horrible behavior of the administration about benghazi in libya. it cost him terribly to waste his time in michigan and pennsylvania when he should have been concentrating and virginia and ohio. this has been a poorly run campaign. he is a wonderful man. i was with him yesterday at the rally. i looked in his face, the face of a kindly intelligent wonderful human being, but i believe he has been poorly in feist. neil: are you surprised some of these examples, benghazi was not even among the top five issues.

>> because the republicans did not make it into a big issue. we made it into a big issue at the american spectator, a very small magazine, and the "wall street journal," but the republican leaders did not make it into a big issue. the mainstream media covered up, like where it -- like it with the most biggest covers up in the history of the world. it is astonishing. the cover of. a small child's game compared to the way the media has covered up for benghazi. neil: thank you very much. we will see. again, it is looking very difficult for mitt romney as the night in sues. ashley webster joins us. that is one that it is still clued -- to close to call. i must back up. >> absolutely. there romney camp said, if they do not pick up virginia there is a very unlikely that there will

be a will to make their way to the white house. extremely close, but so far the romney camp has contained a 51- 49 percent advantage. so very close. all the polls has said it was incredibly close. a very hotly contested senate race between cain and george allen. we are at the cain headquarters. republican george allen still hanging on to a very slender the advantage of this time. still a lot more counties to report. of course waiting to hear as we said earlier from those two northern virginia counties of prince william and loud and that were strongholds were president obama in 2000. still too close to call. the question is, will the 13 electoral votes the viejo

carries with it be enough if romney does not manage to pull out a win in florida, ohio, and points from there? we shall see. still too close to call with about 70 percent of the vote in. back to you. neil: thank you. ashley webster, learning this from our colleagues in ohio. the president leads into a of a county. 140,000 votes. one-third of the present and. now, roughly 70-30 margin. countywide. it could mean another 280,000 votes which would put it out of the range of provisional balance by that i mean it bring in the lawyers, bring in the protests god keep this locked up in litigation. in other words, barack obama's win, if it were to the terrace would be beyond the margin half. which means much like kind -- john kerry realized a years ago

when he stood a chance of winning ohio. even though we trailed in the popular vote by 3 million votes, had he won no i/o he would have become president kerry. about 118,000 votes. the feeling was some of those would be more than enough to offset that. he could sue, keep it up in litigation. it turned out that the controversy will balance totaled 50, 60,000. not enough. he never did soup. he never did protest. he never did win. that was then. this is now. ♪

neil: all right. we have another race to share, arizona. all of these are coming in exactly as expected, which favors the president because electorally that would put him on route to pass 270 votes. it's a little too early to say that. i want to stress that. arizona, mitt romney picks up

that state's 11 electoral votes placing him at this point at 174 electoral votes to the president's 163. remember, at the top of the hour 82 electoral votes for states that include california. fifty-five electoral votes. hawaii, idaho, oregon, washington, all expected to go for the president. he would quickly be within a whisper distance of the numbers he needs to be elected, reelected president of the united states. here is another anomaly that i want to say. in the popular vote mitt romney is leading. this is something that was borne out by a lot of polls. mitt romney had the edge in the national popular vote. that translates into about a 50, 49 percent edge in favor of mitt romney over the president. very, very close. this one shows a 31535.

but what we can tell you hear coming in that gap. it goes back and forth. that, too, is nearing polls that show the popular vote going one way in the electoral vote potentially going the other way. we elect our presidents on the electoral votes. that could change mightily given the likely wins in california were he to run up the popular vote tally, and in his own state of why. but idaho, oregon, washington, you could make an argument that the president makes this a more competitive popular vote race. there is the distinct possibility that we are going to revisit a 2,000 year where the guy who wins this contest is not the guy who wins the popular vote. the president could go down to defeat in the popular vote, but windy like toro vote. early to say, but i mention it

for what it's worth. rich edson at obama headquarters right now. what's the mood? >> well, the other pathways for governor on the taking of the board. pennsylvania leading wisconsin. especially considering the house budget commission with the selection. romney folks up. so they keep coming off the board. the crowd is more excited. they begin to see the dwindling passes for their opponent. the major outstanding question, when you look of florida, virginia, ohio, still a possibility for governor romney to move forward. that's something that the obama folks have been concerned about. they have a bit of optimism. they feel the turnout has been solid. question marks. suffered a little bit. still very competitive. so as you look at these different places, you talk about

what david axelrod was saying yesterday, they say they believe they could win the popular vote. they believe they can win the electoral votes, and as these other states come off the board is looking a lot better. neil: thank you very much. i told you before, futures were down. that might have had something to do with this. it's always hard to say. the foreign markets, asian market to more to the point is next. liz claman outside town square with the view of what the mood is there. >> right here outside. i'm waiting because we have a camera mounted on the paramount hotel. as i walked around to the other side, here we are with our fox business group. maybe the crown would have been thicker if it weren't so :. the futures are heating up, and they are down, as you pointed out. we've been showing them on the screen.

it gives us a sense of how the market will open tomorrow. right now you see them down. by the way, don't put as much stock in the dow futures. a little bit more of. you're talking about 500 different names. down about 11 points. you can see, down about 85. what are we talking about? we have this parade. it seemed like one of those with a put in debate papier-mache sort of a gigantic puppets. not only did they have mitt romney in president obama, but they have the monopoly man. their merchant -- chanting about hoo wall street is a party that always wins. he concedes, there is no monopoly man. holding of the big dollar bills. it's just kind of a column seen right here as we wait for your analysis. by the way, all of our monitors are appear. the fox business sign it, some

people are stopping and watching you on the air give your civics lessons, which i would argue are absolutely clear and so smart. they are appreciating. neil: and looking at that crowd behind you. uni can both remember how different it was four years ago. unprecedented, nation elected first african-american president. i can run for the horns on, people of all stripes, republican, and democrat, it really was a remarkable achievement because of such a historic first. not quite the same jazzed crowd, but what's your sense of the mood? >> if you remember, i was in grant park on election night when president obama and joe biden and their families were there. it was a stunning feel to it. 5,000 international media had gathered. it was fox business first election. it was fascinating to look and all of that. very much a different feel.

still close. people understand that there is some much seriousness about what's going on with the economy in the money in the markets. back to you a nickel. neil: thank you. minnesota. we can tell you right now. for barack obama. to an electoral votes of that state. i know i'm sounding like a broken record, but that was expected. the reason i keep saying it was expected. if you line of the states and as they are expected to go, and it keeps in with this regardless of what happens to the popular vote, barack obama will be reelected president of the united states. he will have acquired at least 290 of the 270 votes he needs. right now you can't tell because were looking at 174 electoral votes for mitt romney. 1703 for barack obama. keep in mind, at 11:00, the top

of the hour, we have another 86 -- 82 electoral votes. one of them is an almost certain gimme for barack obama, california and its 55 votes. you're getting the idea with that alone you have him at about 225 electoral votes, closing in fast at the 270 you will need. we have this other separate development. the popular vote is going the other way. the popular vote at this point favors more romney who is leading in the national popular vote count, trailing in the electoral vote. an anomaly that was working in al gore's favorite, but because he trailed in the electoral vote it really didn't matter. right now mitt romney leading in the popular vote. i stress again that it's hardly etched in stone because some of these big stage when they come in could run those numbers up to the president's advantage. the fact of the matter is right now mitt romney leaves and a

popular vote, and barack obama leads in the electoral vote. confusing. can you say disappointing for you and your gas? but. >> for somebody that likes the free-market and likes limited government, yes, it's disappointing. i think if we had -- a don't know what your family is like. my family, the debates between the two sides are ferociously he'd. and interesting to see what happens. neil: and what you mean. as are talking here, paul ryan, his house seats in wisconsin , he could run for congressman again. also the chairman of the house budget committee, but he conveniently easily wins his house seat. concurrently running for vice president. of course mitt romney's running mate. should he go down to defeat tonight he can take heart in

knowing that you will still be a player, maybe a power player in the house of representatives, but certainly some disappointment that he was not able to deliver his state of wisconsin for republicans and i. what you make of that? >> well, we're going to see the affordable care acted implemented. this giant deficit that's facing us. we have the budget cuts coming. he's going to be on center stage in a matter what happens. it will be interesting to see. i can't imagine it's a particularly politically attractive place to be, but he will definitely be a limelight. neil: for getting support reports that george allen in virginia is ready to take the stage. we do not know if that is a concession speech. he would concede, but we're watching. were just watching it. i've been telling you and others about how the markets are going

and not liking what they're hearing thus far. and on wondering what life would be like if everything we have gotten used to remains, in other words, a democrat and the white house, democratic senate, and republican house. what to you envision? >> well, my biggest concern for the next four years is that things that got us mad at each other a going to get sharper. very different in terms of our approaches, the way we see problems and the way we see resolutions. our problems that we are confronting, like the deficit, like the implementation of the health care act i going to become much more tangible. that is likely to pull us apart instead of together, so will take some really interesting statesmanship, and it's hard to see where the bridges will be built. neil: you think that as the vice-president said, republicans losing the white house might @%ing their temperature down a little bit.

the heat goes, the compromise could send. everyone just calms neck down. i don't envision that. the table is set exactly as it was. >> i don't. particularly with the election is close. your going to have a lot of people who more strongly than ever believe it's essentially an authentic difference in two different points of view. the president's -- the wheels as a way to bridge the differences. and there is no infrastructure the china post together. i don't think this election helps that. neil: we shall see. to relieve the say, but it's always a pleasure. >> thank you. neil: like until you right now is we have a kind of on many 2000. don't know whether it's the stuff of great controversy. it is where it is. mitt romney leading in the national popular vote and the president leading in the electoral vote. the electoral vote decides this,

and the president as a far easier route to getting to that. for now it is going to cause a wee bit of controversy when people wake up tomorrow morning and realize that the guy who has the popular vote lost or won, i should say. well, you get what i mean. it's a mess. it is what it is. america the way it is. has not happened since 2000. he knew it would only take 12 years to do the same of confusing thing again. a number of big states coming in representing 82 electoral votes that could put barack obama tantalizingly close to the amount he would need to be reelected president of the united states. ♪ [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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so theirootsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank neil: all right. welcome back. a couple of minutes away from a big, big chunk of electoral votes in states that could swing this even closer for barack obama. sandra has been keeping track of the past, if there is one. it is a slum in one. >> still a few scenarios that would point to a romney victory. want to pull up the state of florida. let's take a look at the scenario. florida, virginia, north carolina, ohio. these four states still not called in the race. they are too close to call. if romney were to win those four

states he would have to win that combination. you could then add on heated the state of nevada, colorado, or ir six alleged oral votes and you would top the 270 mark which would be a scenario for on romney when. again, still too close to call. it is not too late to say that there are still some scenarios for mitt romney to pull off a victory. one other thing i want to point out as we look at the state of florida, we were talking earlier about the high hispanic population in the state. you can now see that in the key metropolitan areas, miami has turned blue. obviously an obama victory. tampa, orlando, a key areas that we talked about earlier. obama has won in those key counties in the state of florida, although the state is still too close to call. i wanted to point that out ca